To the editor:

I’ve been visiting in Lawrence this past week with my parents at their home near 17th and Mississippi streets, where I grew up.

After a week of single-digit temperatures, snow, wind and ice, Monday was a beautiful, sunny day in the 50s. When Mom asked me to run to the grocery store, I decided to enjoy the weather and walk to Dillons on Massachusetts Street.

I noticed that the sidewalks surrounding the private homes were clear and in some cases dry, but that the sidewalks around the small apartment and rental houses along 17th Street were hard-packed with snow and ice.

Shame on the owners and managers of these properties that don’t care about the safety of their tenants and the people who live in these neighborhoods that walk to get around or for exercise! Isn’t there a city ordinance that requires these owners to take care of their sidewalks?

Sally Llewellyn Kirkpatrick,

Morgantown, W. Va.